Open Thread: What’s Our Message?
June 30, 2009 by iMonk
So Evangelicals….what will be your version?
The blog of Michael Spencer
The blog of Michael Spencer
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I pray jabez
I watch Joel
I pray for money and cars
or better
I pray for Muslims
I pray for whole Muslim nations
I pray for unreached peoples
or
I use Alan Creech rosaries
or
I pray the Anglican Rosary. (Same God, Better Theology.)
I do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with my God.
“I walk humbly….”
Hey, no one said it’d be as easy as praying the rosary.
I pray the rosary, I pray the Psalms, I pray the Diary of Private Prayer, I pray in tongues, I pray quietly without words, I pray while walking, I pray crying, I pray in song, I pray halting, disjointed prayers, I pray in desperation, I pray in joy. I pray in when my faith is strong. I pray when my faith is weak. I don’t have a version.
I pray that everyday Mommy doesn’t see this post.
I pray to the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Or more simply put…
I talk to God.
I’m Presbyterian, Born again, Bible believing, Jesus follower, and….I pray the rosary, the Liturgy of the Hours, litanies. It has transformed my life. Jesus is always in my concience, lurking back there when I’m doing my work. Always there to give me the strength to do what he wants me to do. I feel alone…yes. Protestants just don’t understand. This is a gift from God that is so easy. I can reflect on the entire life of Christ from birth to death, whether I’m driving my car or locked up without my Bible in a prison cell. My rosary constantly leads me to reflect on that which cannot be eliminated from my heart and brain. JESUS…..
I pray for a good parking spot.
I pray that one day I too can be young and good looking enough to pray the rosary
I don’t have a version of that. Didn’t know I needed one.
I pray: “Jesus, help me to love.”
(I liked that video, Michael, and at the end, I saw there were other things to click to see other videos. There were some very nice things in those too! Check out the one titled “Rosary Stars.” I have to admit that, although I am Catholic and I know how to pray the rosary, I don’t do it. Growing up, my family didn’t focus on the Rosary. My grandma prayed it silently every night as she went to sleep though. I did have a friend whose mom converted to Catholicism and the entire family said the Rosary together every day. I don’t remember the kids liking to do that and I don’t know if any of them are practicing Catholics today. I am thinking not.)
Hold me Jesus. I’m shakin’ like a leaf. You have been my King of glory. Now be my Prince of Peace.
Quoting Rich is the next best thing to quoting Scripture, imho.
“better theology” – nice. Depends on what kind of theology you put into a rosary I reckon. Of course, mine don’t have a built-in theological requirement. Just get one and pray with it in some way that’s helpful to you.
Oh, and skip the t-shirt and walkin’ around drawing attention to yourself and how you pray the rosary or whatever – gee whiz people.
Oh what a pooper. You’ll never make a million this way. Call Youtube and get a pop up ad in there
I barely know what a pop-up ad on YouTube is man. Hey, I’m shamelessly slidin’ in here and promoting myself ain’t I?
Oh, and I do make the puportedly theologically superior Anglican rosar… prayer beads as well. Just in case anybody wondered. I’m all ecumenicable like ‘at.
You didn’t see the ad? Why am I so blessed. Youtube now has ads overlaying the screen the first 20 seconds.
As the video said, May is the month of Mary (and links up with October, the month of the Holy Rosary._
June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
July – just coming up! – is the month of the Precious Blood.
Surely you guys can do something with “Saved by the blood!” or “Pleading the blood!” or “Washed in the blood of the Lamb!” that’ll knock the socks of all who behold it and show us Papists what’s what (since we’ll have to wait until November, the month of the Holy Souls, to start up with the bad theology again)
I would love, seriously, to see an Evangelical/Reformed notion along these lines on the Precious Blood, just to be edified and instructed.
“I pray the Westminister Confession . . .”
Doesn’t have quite the same ring
I live in accordance with the gospel.
I pray morning prayer, Lutheran vespers and Cistercian compline. Daily lectio and centering. The daily reading of the Holy rule of St. Benedict. Currently I am doing a daily reading on the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Carthusian Order and a weekly read in Foster’s Devotional Classics.
I pray that I could actually see videos on this site.
I pray the blogosphere….imprecatorily .
Its ironic how the subtitles were all about dispelling the myths of the Rosary and then the film ended “all about Mary” which is the main Protestant issue with the Rosary.
I do have my Anglican beads, (thanks to the iMonk) and it can be helpful in my prayers to the Father and the Son.
I pray the Orthodox version of the Rosary. In passing, shhh, we have had +Alan make some prayer beads for us. Gasp, that means that +Alan has been ecumenically minded.
The theology of prayer will change depending on who is praying. But, the comfort of a prayer that is well-remembered, that is said from memory, that is like a well-worn bead sliding through the fingers, that is like an old familiar friend bringing you back to God, now that is priceless. It need not be the rosary. It can be one of the Psalms or some other prayer. But, it slips through the mind like a breath of spring air renewing our spiritual senses and reminding us that a new day is here and that a new day shall come someday.
My message can only be spoken using the Angelic Tongue:
Ubba ubba ubba! Homina homina homina! Obama ugga aboobika Antichrist homina! Amen.
Shaw McBride may be onto something. He just won the lottery, yet he wants to give his millions away, spurred on by the Grace of God and a message of love.
He says, “What can I buy with money besides things that I don’t need.” This is beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbpmeaeVTrI
I pray in tongues. I pray to the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I use ’soaking’ music to help me pray.
Sometimes I pray over the Bible.
Sue: It’s on a tee shirt.
Very Nice thanks for the link
God Bless
Steve in Toronto
So I’ll write small and pray LARGE!
Have fun on your trip
I prayed my way up a mountain and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.
Fr.Ernesto: very nice post; sometimes I assume that all repetition is meaningless babble. Need to grow out of that, I liked the image of a well worn stone. They make jewelry out of such, and things of value. Again, well said.
Greg R
I don’t pray enough
I pray the evangelical video will have as many good-looking people in it as this video does…
If we were truly evangelicals, the answer to ‘what’s our message’ would be easy, it would be the evangel, the gospel. Not something we do, but something that Christ did: that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for all who would turn to Him in faith.
I pray for the stregnth to be a better father, husband, and a better follow of Christ. And for forgiveness for being lower than the dirt.
“I do something useful”
For many, it would be “I worship the Bible, Paul and Jesus, in that order.”
That video made me feel very sad.
In my opinion, It is all about the focus and attitude in which you pray- not the mechanism.
My first reaction was that the Mormons are going to have to try harder if they want to keep up in terms of well produced advertisements.
I pray that I have adopted the precisely correct systematic theology, through which runs the narrow gate of salvation. I pray that I am elect and God is not simply toying with my reprobate soul.
Maybe a tad too cynical. Feel free to moderate that last one.
Sorry for so many posts, but now for my honest thoughts:
I had honestly never read through the entire rosary before today. Although I must say that I am a little uncomfortable with the part that comes immediately after the Rosary, the part which begins, “Hail, Holy Queen…,” I find the various “mysteries” absolutely beautiful. I am shamed by how little I think of such things, and I see how there could be an immense benefit to reflecting on them on a daily basis. I remember Dallas Willard, in a talk, once mentioning that he had been involved with traditions where people’s Bibles would be worn out at the books of Romans and Galatians, while the Gospels hardly touched. Maybe that’s hyperbole, but I can honestly see it. In Evangelicalism, how much are the actual teachings and life of Jesus addressed as compared to justification and the finer points of atonement theory (active obedience or just passive obedience, argh!)? Imonk, I know that you are working against this trend with your Jesus Shaped Spirituality, and I thank you. I am also thankful to folks like N.T. Wright for trying to expand the vision of the Gospel, but I sometimes wonder if he’s not desperately trying to patch a sinking ship.
And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.
I really dig the one I got from Alan. I vaguely remember getting this idea from iMonk, but in a rather protestant fashion I usually use it to pray for 10 people I really care about before going to bed. God’s been suggesting I also pray for 10 people who piss me off, but I’m having troubles honestly doing that.
I really dig the brevity and simplcity of that one-decade design, though
Talk about late for the party..I was RC 40 yrs ago, and NOW they’re T-shirted and cool; sheesh, I coulda waited…who knew ? Bishop O’Hara HS looked NOTHING like that in the 70’s. sigh…
Greg R
I struggled with this. “Jesus loves me” means he might not love you. “I love Jesus” is smugly self-righteous. Every variation I come up with seems to stay on one track or the other. My gospel is Jesus. Maybe he doesn’t fit on a t-shirt. But the video is definitely a spine-chiller.